Pvt. Charles Pratt Judd, 17th Regt. Illinois Infantry, Co. K

December 31, 2018

An account in the Chicago Tribune of cousin (1st cousin to the Hamilton children -- Supplina, William, Roxy, Hiram, etc.) Charles Pratt Judd's evacuation by steamer to Cairo, Illinois after the battle of Shiloh, Tennessee (Pittsburgh Landing), where he was 'grievously wounded.' Charles was in bad shape, wounded in four places and left for dead on the battlefield. He survived but suffered the rest of his life from his wounds; his years after the war showed his high intelligence and also his high ability to spin a story and work the angles. Charles in later years earned a presidential appointment by Grover Cleveland and became a national news story (used by partisans to embarrass the president) once his past was known (as a convicted serial horse thief). Charles was a published poet, an early labor activist, husband (multiple wives) and father. One of his sons would become an early actor of some note in the silent movies playing in several Westerns alongside Douglas Fairbanks and Yakima Canutt; this son, John Lemon 'Johnny' Judd, was also a top trick roper on the rodeo circuit and became a hero in saving a fellow performer's life by roping down a runaway horse with ungloved hands, sustaining horrific rope burns as a result. In all, Charles Pratt Judd is an amazing and sympathetic character whose life was forever changed by answering President Lincoln's call for volunteers to save the Union.

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